A Father’s Example, A Son’s Path in Medicine

Health­care has long been part of Titus Pet­ty’s life, shaped in large part by his father, Dr. Todd Pet­ty, gen­er­al sur­geon at Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG), whose exam­ple helped guide his path into medicine.

Grow­ing up in a fam­i­ly con­nect­ed to med­i­cine, Titus was sur­round­ed by sto­ries, expe­ri­ences, and val­ues that reflect­ed what it means to serve oth­ers in health­care. Over time, that influ­ence helped shape both his inter­est in the field and his approach to it.

Titus cur­rent­ly attends the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mis­souri, where he is pur­su­ing his under­grad­u­ate stud­ies with plans to attend med­ical school in the future.

“I’ve spent my whole life grow­ing up around peo­ple in med­i­cine, rang­ing from grand­par­ents to sib­lings, so it has felt very nat­ur­al to choose a career in health­care,” Titus said.

This sum­mer, that influ­ence has become some­thing more tan­gi­ble. Titus is work­ing as a med­ical assis­tant intern at QMG, the same clin­ic where his father has spent his career car­ing for patients.

Now, instead of sim­ply being around health­care in a gen­er­al sense, he’s expe­ri­enc­ing it first­hand, work­ing direct­ly with patients, learn­ing from care teams, and step­ping into the dai­ly rhythm of clin­i­cal work.

“What I have gained so far from work­ing at QMG is valu­able hands-on expe­ri­ence work­ing with patients,” Titus said. ​“I have been able to improve both my clin­i­cal and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills and has learned how to work as a part of a health­care team.”

For Dr. Pet­ty, watch­ing his son explore the same field adds a deeply per­son­al dimen­sion to a career spent car­ing for others.

“It has been fun to watch Titus explore dif­fer­ent aspects of health­care,” Dr. Pet­ty shared. ​“From shad­ow­ing physi­cians to now work­ing as a med­ical assis­tant, he gets to see dif­fer­ent aspects of patient care, and it’s inter­est­ing to hear his take on things. It’s espe­cial­ly neat that he can spend time this sum­mer work­ing here at QMG, with part­ners that I’ve worked with and respect­ed for decades.”

As Titus looks ahead to med­ical school, his father offers advice shaped by years of experience.

“The main advice that I would try to pass on to any­one inter­est­ed in a career in med­i­cine is the impor­tance of per­sis­tence and deter­mi­na­tion,” Dr. Pet­ty said. ​“It’s not always easy, and the hours and years of edu­ca­tion and train­ing can be long, but it’s a supreme­ly reward­ing career.”

For Titus, some of the most last­ing lessons have come from fam­i­ly influ­ence and per­son­al exam­ple at home.

“One of the biggest things I learned from watch­ing my dad as I have grown up is the impor­tance of hard work,” Titus said. ​“Whether in the hos­pi­tal or work­ing with our goats, I have been able to see how ded­i­ca­tion and a strong work eth­ic pay off. He has taught me to be com­mit­ted, depend­able, and take pride in what I do.”